Dunhuang Tour Highlights - In April, Henry and I took a marvellous trip to Dunhuang on a learning tour with the Oriental Ceramic Society and Friends of the Museum of Hong Kong University. We were very fortunate to have Professor P. P. Ho of Chinese University to accompany the tour and to give us lectures on arts, architecture and religion. We spent three days focusing on paintings of the caves in Mogao Grottoes and Yulin Caves. A lot of the cave paintings filled us with awe and speechlessness, especially on the first day when some of us didn't know what to expect. The arts and heritage of Dunhuang are so profoundly rich and unbelievably amazing that it could easily take several life times to never finish exploring.
In Gobi desert, we visited two fully intact 1500 yr old tombs with exquisite architectural features; Dunhuang Great Wall of Han Dynasty and Devil City where you can find wind-eroded stone sculptures spreading all over the area. When strong wind blows, queer sounds can be heard like ghosts' moaning - that's how it got its name. We spent three days driving very slowly through the desert and being turned into human jerky during which I just could not stop thinking of Tripitaka wandering through Gobi desert without Evian! Everyone seemed to have had a great time, and we really enjoyed travelling together.
If you're interested, you may download some pictures of Dunhuang taken by a friend by clicking here or you may download three cave paintings by clicking here.
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